Hoffman: Bing results are racist, pedophiliaic, conpiratorial

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I didn’t believe it until I tried some of the searches myself. Google comes up clean, but Bing barfs big-time. Chris Hoffman at How-To Geek: Bing Is S
[See the full post at: Hoffman: Bing results are racist, pedophiliaic, conpiratorial]

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geekdom

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Wonder if Satya has seen this? Bing’s come a long way since he was in charge.

So has Windows 10!
Never use Bing or Google search, DuckDuckGo does the no nonsense task.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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lanceboil, SueW, bknight721, Fred, BobbyB

This topic looks exceedingly political to me.

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RockJohny, Barry, GreatAndPowerfulTech

Well, if it wasn’t before, it is now.

GaryK

Child pornography isn’t a political issue.

Sadly, many are making it one.  Brazil has been having issues from what I’ve heard (word of mouth from a Brazilian friend).

Fortran, C++, R, Python, Java, Matlab, HTML, CSS, etc.... coding is fun!
A weatherman that can code

Waiting for Microsoft to respond that based on the estimated population of the entire world, the number of individuals that might be offended or adversely affected by Bing search results is not statistically significant.

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RockJohny

Bing? Don’t get me started…

Bing’s come a long way since he was in charge.

Really? I tried it a couple of months ago and it was still the search engine giving you answers to questions you never asked…

And a search for “gril” leads to “boy and girl sex” and photos of small girls?

That is just…

Perhaps Bing is responsible for current state of patching…

Btw. got really, really tired of google’s offered commercial links, so after trying all search engines, I too ended up with DuckDuckGo. Highly recommended!

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Cybertooth, BobbyB

got really, really tired of google’s offered commercial links

I use Startpage (they query Google on your behalf and strip away bad Google stuff, aiding on your privacy). I also use an ad blocker, and a Firefox plugin to disable Google Analytics (official from Google itself). My searches are pretty much sanitized. Startpage also blocks delicate content (i.e. adult stuff) by default, if you want your naughty bits you have to enable that kind of content yourself.

This model of advertisement on the internet has became so abusive that blocking ads has become the biggest world wide protest of all times in History. When I have a firewall on my Android phone and the alarm clock app wants my location and runs over the firewall to display ads that I have 3 viruses and I should download the unknown savior app, that disrespect is overkill enough for me.

I wonder when people have enough and Microsoft comes next…

Of course, honorable hard working legit and respectful people such as Woody pay a price for this because of others’ malpractices. Of course you can always add an exception to askwoody on your ad blocker.

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Steve

What do you really expect to get in the results when you search for something like that?Google already censors your search to what they want..I see nothing wrong with it..

I remember what happened with Microsoft’s answer bot.
Seems Bing is using their same AI?

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columbia2011

Yeah, I thought about Tay as well.

IMHO, it doesn’t matter, if AI engine is the same or different. It is just, what unconstrained and unsupervised contact with the internet does to some program, that is learning.

Microfix wrote:

Wonder if Satya has seen this? Bing’s come a long way since he was in charge.

So has Windows 10! Never use Bing or Google search, DuckDuckGo does the no nonsense task.

so does Startpage.com

* _ ... _ *

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Steve, Cybertooth

Did anyone else LOL when they read: …”fake news, as Buzzfeed News reported.”

I wonder what Microsoft’s intentions were… seems they could’ve guessed that this wouldn’t go over well. Seems as if this is just one more reason not to use Bing; in fact, finding a different search engine is an easy and effective solution.

Bing is the default search engine in Win10. Any search done in the taskbar search box is Cortana/Bing

…which is why I don’t use it. If I need to do a web search, I fire up a proper web browser (NOT EDGE) and do a search on Google or DuckDuckGo. It’s not that big of a hassle, actually, given how Bing is dead to me anyways.

Yup, same. Although if you wanted, you can change the search engine in Edge…

‘0.0.0.0 bing.com http://www.bing.com’ in the hosts file and done.

Edit for content

What in the world is going on at Microsoft? It seems they have abandoned any sort of quality control or self checks. This definitely should be investigated by law enforcement with heavy fines and penalties assessed.

Red Ruffnsore

What in the world is going on at Microsoft? It seems they have abandoned any sort of quality control or self checks.

My sarcasm tells me that their research will pretty soon lead them to make the ground braking discovery of being able to divide by zero. Then I’ll start using Windows 10!

/sarcasm

In my opinion, I think the real problem is that Microsoft wants to be the parent of big services (e.g., web search, stores, cloud, etc.) without investing the ongoing resources to make it a whole (and wholesome) service. They seem to just lose interest when the (necessary) expenses mount.

The concept of using one’s position as technical leader to skim profits off other people’s work by being a “facilitator” is no doubt hugely attractive to them. Thing is, it’s not just something you can set up to do, then forget it.

Perhaps only a minority of people use computers and the internet to do or post bad things, but experience has shown that it doesn’t take much poison to turn a service into a wasteland! The whole concept of a successful service is that the flow of value is not just one way. This is one reason why I find Microsoft’s increasing “aaS” orientation so disappointing. They’ve just not been mature enough to manage it.

By the way, no bing.anything can even be resolved on my LAN, and if somehow magically such a server or domain DID get resolved, my firewall would block access. Yes, I am personally THAT MUCH opposed to Bing. Articles like this one reinforce why.

Google, by contrast, seems to have figured out how much investment is needed to provide successful services both technically as well as socially and appear willing to shoulder the necessary expenses needed to actually sustain them. I’m no big fan of Google’s general policies of profiting off others’ information and I dislike advertising in general, but I do allow Google services, and I respect the differences between saying something and actually running something.

-Noel

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BobbyB, Karlston, SueW, wdburt1, lurks about

Doing business can be expensive as well as profitable.

MBA 101: More profitable still, not paying the cost of doing business.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

Noel Carboni wrote:

Google, by contrast, seems to have figured out how much investment is needed to be provide successful services both technically as well as socially and appear willing to shoulder the necessary expenses needed to actually sustain them. I’m no big fan of Google’s general policies of profiting off others’ information and I dislike advertising in general, but I do allow Google services, and I respect the differences between saying something and actually running something.

Google hasn’t done much better in this respect:

Google Autocomplete Still Makes Vile Suggestions

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Noel Carboni

Perhaps. I don’t choose to use auto-suggest for any service so I haven’t seen any of it.

-Noel

Consider this idea: Microsoft is consciously trying to avoid the traps that ensnared those that came before, the DEC’s, Word Perfect, IBM. Perhaps they said to themselves, ‘let us change our business model before the model that got us here kills us of old age or hardening of the corporate arteries.’ Perhaps they were right and it’s us that simply don’t like their new life-sustaining business model.

In that case it is us that risks being left in the dust of computing history. Man I hate getting old.

Ramrod

The headline is accurate. The reaction is authentic, but just wide of the mark.

The results are racist, pedophiliaic, conspiratorial. The Bing search engine is unfiltered. Or not filtered in line with our accustomed standard.

It’s a messy world out there. A world that requires filters. Filters allow us to get on with our business without getting sidelined with outrage. Microsoft could do better. But the engine does not create the foul content, it just doesn’t hold back the filth.

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Noel Carboni

You asked whether Satya has seen this.  I have come to believe that he sees what he wants to see–that unpleasant reality intrudes only after surmounting a high hurdle.

So, has one of his unfortunate subordinates brought this to his attention?  And did he accept that intrusion, or punish the messenger?

This is a day in the life of the CEO, I fear.

 

I did a search for the same things and came up with different results that he was showing..I take what he said with a grain of salt..

Whichever browser/search engine I use (currently Firefox/DuckDuckGo), if it has a feature for disabling search suggestions, I turn it off. Having a search engine making suggestions for me is irritating. I prefer to do my own reasoning and research, thank you very much. Getting suggestions is like having someone looking over my shoulder, butting in and trying to herd me around. No thanks.

Still, search engines should have basic algorithms to prevent suggesting offensive, illegal or immoral material. Microsoft should curate Bing much better. I wouldn’t see this as censorship. People can always type in the seach terms they want.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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Noel Carboni

Likewise, I think it’s silly to pop things up after each character typed. I always turn that stuff off. Maybe it’s why I’m still sane.

I’m still sane, right? Right?

-Noel

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Kirsty

Jan K. wrote:

And a search for “gril” leads to “boy and girl sex” and photos of small girls?

I just did a Bing search for “gril” and “girl” and went 15 pages deep on both and never saw anything close to such a result. A couple or three were somewhat “off-color” in nature, but nothing coming close to what you describe or what’s described in Hoffman’s article.

I’m guessing that, if all this is true, it must have something to do with a user’s search history? Or maybe not. All I know for sure are the search results I got.

Folks, we’re way off topic. I’m closing the thread.